Podcast 29: This is a podcast interview I did with Kevin Bisbangian, award winning film director. I have worked with Kevin as I acted in his short ‘Chain Reaction’ alongside my friend Michael Brazil who had won best Supporting Actor at Madrid, acting in Kevin’s very first drama ‘Broken Wings’.

Broken Wings was nominated for six awards at Madrid International Film Festival 2012. The nominations were Best script, producer, director, actor, supporting actor and best actress.
He has subsequently won best short documentary award at St Tropez for ‘Poetic Emotions’

Q:Any advice for budding filmmakers or writers?

Kevin doesn’t feel he is at a level to give anyone advice but working hard is really important. He has very talented filmmakers who make one film every couple years and then think about next one for two more years.

‘If you really like something you have to work hard at it. It is not good enough to make one film every three or four years. I understand if it is not ready but if you can afford it ,it is better to work hard and even with different people.’
He is working with 3 different groups of people and it works for him as well as produce other directors work in the future.

Either listen to the podcast by pressing the button above or there is a loose transcript below.

Kevin went to China for three weeks and made his first ever film, a documentary, which he loved for the editing. He then made an ad with a friend of his and ‘Broken Wings’ was the third film he made, and the first drama he had made.
He knew most of the actors anyway, he had done a Method Acting course so he handpicked the best actors.
I asked about self-doubt and why he felt it was good enough to send off to festivals.‘You never know but I am generally good at identifying if something is rubbish and I am honest with myself.’

The ‘Poetic Emotion’ documentary he made he had the thought that if it was rubbish he would forget about it, and that was the plan and they (himself and Juliet the star) both agreed. ‘After editing you know if it is any good,’
St Tropez Film Festival ‘Poetic Emotion’ won the best short documentary award in 2013.

He has been making films for 4 years, he maintains the awards are a fluke. He feels that he has been very lucky and worked with professional people, that helps you get nominations and thus work with better people.

After ‘Broken Wings’ he made ‘Studio’ which was about making ‘Poetic Emotion’, ‘Last Letter’ a 3 minute film, and also ‘Chain Reaction’ that I (Marysia) am in.

I got to hold the very heavy St Tropez international Winner Award 😉

Q: Does he think he is particularly good at giving judges of festivals what they want?‘You can never afford to submit your film to every festival, but you have to decide where to send your film to give it a better chance i.e St Tropez because the documentary being about a French artist it would have a better chance. Broken Wings as there was a scene he was in that he had to speak in Spanish and Japanese, as was the actress speaking Spanish in it so he thought he would send it to Madrid as give it better chance’

Having been to a screening of ‘Broken Wings’ I thought the bleeding in from shots, the visuals, the more early Almadovar breaking the frame was more why he would have been nominated but of course neither of us know.

Kevin has recently finished Salome, a psychological thriller and he was lucky to have twenty very professional people to work with. He started planning a year ago last summer to do rehearsals, costumes, makeups, to decide about every little detail.‘ In the last few days before shooting we lost a location and without a location the pressure really escalates and makes me depressed but we managed to get an even better location.’
He is hoping to submit it to a few festivals, there is no deadline you can submit your film within the next 3 years anyway.‘As long as the result is good, the pressure just happens during the shoot.”

Q: What has he learnt about film making over the last few years since he started?
The only difference is his age, he is getting tired! Kevin does not know in terms of experience, whether he is more experienced but he tries to not make the same mistakes again. He plans things now, including storyboards. He didn;t use them before and that was a big mistake, he plans camera angles and discusses with his DOP. So everything is discussed and with the Assistant Directors also , with the whole team there was a big discussion. He feels very lucky as all of them were great and trying to achieve something fantastic.

Q: Does he like to do one or two shots or search for the perfect shot?

Instead of establishing shots from the front he prefers from the back but he discusses them with other people including the DOP (director of photography) to see if it’s physically possible. He is not bad at listening to people, so if there is an opinion he likes to discuss it with others and he also learning a lot from working with other professional people.

Q Since you have won 2 awards in 2012 and 2103 is it getting any easier?

Now it is easier as different people send him scripts and actors approach him,

‘Now people know I am serious about what I do, anyone can make a film but we try to make a better one each time, you make a benchmark, an award pushes you to work harder for your next project.’

Q: A la the Da Vinci Quote ‘Art is never finished only abandoned’ and knowing there is never a perfect edit on a song or a film, does he know when a film is ready or how does he edit?
These days he edits as little as possible, he has someone else editing Salome and he sits next to him and tells him. Another project, a one hour feature documentary is Iranian so he will have another editor for that, He is editing ‘Chain Reaction’ and he isco-producing role on ‘Something About Patrick’ about a French/American negotiator in the American army, he will edit that one. So he editing two of four, so he learning to delegate.

I mention Peter Jackson, making super 8 movies about monsters as a child to now having 3 filming units on Lord Of The Rings.

Q What about the depression side of making art? Are there ways of lifting depression?

In each project he gets depressed for a few weeks so he has started kick boxing to train hard and that really helps him while he is shooting and before or after. Other people do drugs and drink but he kick boxes though he does keep getting injured.

It is exhausting but he loves the work he does.‘People get to know you, thats the way to network so the more we spread the word the better.”

He is happy to accept emails from people on his work or on possible future projects.
His IMDB Page

Kevin Bisbangian was born in Tehran, Iran. From early childhood he had a passion for movies as well as classic American TV series such as Mission Impossible directed by the great Iranian director Reza Badiyi, and Wild Wild West

Love Your Creativity.com is dedicated to all creatives trying to make great work and make a living from it.

About Marysia and Love Your Creativity
I blog at least three times a week on creativity and techniques to get your art on.

The dance music I use Londontown, is a track I wrote years ago and Andrew Hyde and I are currently working on 3 remixes of it. We will be releasing it very soon as a dance track, dub step mix and bar mix. I figured if I was going to podcast I may as well use my own tune! The other bits of music are me, my inspiration and whatever instrument is lying around!!.
If you like the podcast a rating on iTunes would really help.

div>Post 72 of Dream, create and make money in the arts

This is a series of blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order